After 11 activists were arrested yesterday for blocking toxic
shipments with two buses at the PPG vinyl plant, at dawn this
morning a banner was hung from the company’s water tower. The
banner reads, “PPG – Poisoning People Globally.” The message is to
a reminder that dioxin and other persistent poisons travel long
distances via air currents and are contaminating communities as far
as the Arctic. The climbers were arrested after the banner was hung
and have been taken to the sheriff’s office in Calcasieu
Parish.
PPG is a principle source of dioxin and other contaminants in
southwest Louisiana. These protests come just one week after
Greenpeace released a report entitled, “Unlawful and Unhealthy,”
which exposes illegal permitting, suspicious tax breaks and lax
enforcement of Louisiana environmental laws.
“Dioxin is polluting communities near and far from Louisiana.
Not only are people near vinyl plants in Louisiana being affected,
but so are people who live in the Arctic, thousands of miles from
the dioxin source,” said Jackie Warledo, a native American
Greenpeace campaigner who was arrested yesterday in the protest at
PPG. “The future of our communities depends on the U.S. agreeing to
dioxin elimination at the UN treaty negotiations.”
Residents from Louisiana and the
Arctic plan to take their message all the way to South Africa next
week where the UN treaty negotiations will take place from December
4-9. The meeting is the fifth in a series to establish a legally
binding global ban on the most toxic chemicals known. At previous
meetings the U.S. has been one of a handful of nations refusing to
support the elimination of these toxic chemicals.
